TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDENT ADVISORY COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

Proceedings of the GSAC

Vol. I24 March 2013No. 06

Chair Middletoncalled the meeting of the Graduate Student Advisory Council to order at 4:10 PM.

ROLL CALL

Chair MIDDLETONcalled the roll of the GSAC. The following members were present:

Al-Hashmi, SamAlmarri, MisferAlQahtani, Ghazi

Aranda, FlorencioBaisley, AndriaBatastini, Ashley

Borowa, DominikaCetin, MustafaDavenport, Cory

Deming, ElizabethFischer, HeatherGarces, Sergio

Garcia, AlejandroHansen, MeganHolland, Timothy

Jahn, DanielleKelly, BrendanManuchehri, Misha

Mehra, RudhranMiddleton, JohnMohr, Garrett

Osueke, ArthurParks, ElizabethPeters, Katherine

Shenoy, NitinTaylor, AshleeUrbancyzk, Aaron

Whitley, SashaWilder, DavidXia, Shuang

Xie, JingYates, DanielYeter, Ibrahim

ABSENT:

Elmore, KimberlyGuvvala, Yugendra

Koog, RyanLong, Sarah

Min, Jae-HanNadipalli, Ranjith

Rudrapattana, SudeepthaYoung, Anna

Vice President Davenport announced 33voting members having answered the roll, a quorum was present.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Motion, Garret Mohr

Sudeeptha, Urbanczyk

Minutes Approved

Graduate Student Open Forum

Chair Middleton explains the purpose of the Graduate Student open Forum. The floor is opened for issues to be brought to the council.

Evaluation of Graduate Advisors: Sam Al-Hashmi recommends to GSAC that we add evaluations for our advisors, a way for graduate students to evaluate their academic advisors in addition to their professors. This would be of benefit to incoming students also. It is unsure if this is in place anywhere else. Chair Middleton believes this a valuable idea. One GSAC member says Washington State University did this and it worked well. The council agrees that this would be a valuable resource for incoming graduate students. This is a student advocacy and welfare issue.

Technology Fee and Printing Resources: Another topic for discussion by Brian of Technology fees. Graduate students could use more than the $2.30 provided for printing each semester. Sam Al-Hashmi adds that GSAC tried to address this last semester but it is dealt with in departments. Chair Middleton says this would have to be looked at by SGA in the fees committee.

Campus Safety/Self-Defense Course: Also, looking into some sort of self-defense course on campus for students. This is an issue that has become more prominent with the attacks on campus.

New Sponsorship Opportunities: Sam Al-Hashmi would like a committee that would allow prospective companies to get in touch with GSAC that would like to sponsor graduate students. Andria Baisley asks how the duties of this committee would differ from community outreach. Sam point out that community outreach historically has been more concerned with graduate students getting involved in the community, not with the community giving to us. Chair Middleton adds that this is an issue for finance committee, and could be a joint venture between committees such as finance, public relations, and community outreach.

There are rules governing how and who we can accept sponsorships from.

Guest Speaker from West Texas Endurance Ainsley Nelson

Garrett Mohr introduces Ainsley, here to talk to GSAC about volunteering for events. These events help GSAC get involved in the community. The more the community sees that GSAC is providing value to them, the more support we can gain. It is also a great networking opportunity for GSAC and its individual members.

Ainsley Nelson: encourages GSAC to pursue volunteer opportunities. West Texas Endurance would like to continue partnering with GSAC for volunteers as well as welcoming graduate student participants. Volunteers also get shirts and various prizes according to events. Saturday April 6th is the next upcoming meeting. Website is westtexasendurance.com and there is a volunteer registration, list GSAC as organization.

NAGPS South Central Regional Conference Update

A few of our members attended this meeting. This past year GSAC was the South Central Region organization of the year. Heather Nance was elected regional director of communication and administration. Rudrhan was elected director of international student affairs. The elite council would like to elevate those who attended the conference and were elected on the regional board but did not get elected voting members to voting status for GSAC.

Sam motions to vote.

Aaron Urbanczyk seconds.

Motion passes.

Jason Post and Heather Nance are now recognized as full voting members of GSAC.

President Florencio Aranda takes the floor to congratulate the new members.

Old Business – Mentor Tech/The Buddy System

New Business

Term Length for Commission Chairs

We would like to stipulate in the constitution that the term length of commission chair will be one year. The Judicial Legislative commission is reviewing the proposal and once it is reviewed, it will be put to an online vote by council members.

New Officers

At the next meeting we will be electing new officers. Each officer has a list of duties. These are the faces of this council and will have meetings with administrators weekly. If you are a new member and would like to run for a position, you must be nominated by an elected representative at the next meeting. To be elected you also have to BE an elected member. This nomination must be seconded by another voting member. You will then address the council about your goals as an officer, and will leave the room as other members put this to a vote. Prior to executive officer elections all voting member status will be reviewed and some people may be promoted to voting status.

Proposals

Formation of a Distance Education Commission

This commission would be made up of all distance education students. All distance members would automatically be on this commission.

Term Length for Commission Chairs

This will be put to a vote online as mentioned previously.

New Duties for the Judicial/Legislative Commission

To look for more ways to interact with legislators and advocate for issue that are of importance to graduate students. These duties will include meeting with state representatives.

Ibrahim Yeter would like to address the council concerning the Student Advocacy and Welfare commissions. These were voted to be combined in the fall and readdress this issue at this meeting. The members of these commissions consensus is that it is best to combine these commissions permanently.

Ibrahim motions to vote.

Andria seconds.

Motion passes.

The Student Advocacy and Welfare commissions will be permanently combined.

GSAC Retreat

This will be at the Junction campus. There are two weekends reserved. April 26th-28th, OR the next weekend May 1st. There is no penalty for not attending. We will carpool. A vote is posed for the weekend. The retreat will be the weekend of April 26-28th.

Announcements

Charity Emery from the Education Graduate Student Organization: they are accepting applications for officer positions.

Daniel Yates Executive VP for Graduate Affairs in SGA: Wanted to introduce himself, and invite GSAC members to get involved on legislation and contribute ideas to growing the graduate program.

Final Project for 2012-2013 Commissions:

We would like to create a publication that we can give to administrators outlining everything we have done in the past year with descriptions of all of our events and achievements this academic year. Some duties for each commission have been outlined:

Welfare & Advocacy: schedule of events from this year, and apply the events to the upcoming year.

Financial planning: Will be working on a projected budget for 2013-2014 events

Public Relations: will design this booklet of events

Professional/Academic Development: Provide info of previous academic events

Social: Provide description of non-academic events

Community Outreach: Get more involved with events

All members will now break up into commissions.

Heather Fischer, motion to adjourn

Mohr seconds

Meeting adjourned.